Just Another Job
by Tobi Is A Girl's Name
Summary: Mike is a recently divorced dad trying to make ends meet, so when he sees the ad for Freddy's, he jumps at it. Sure the hours suck and so does the pay but a job's a job, right? Rated for language and other obvious things, it is this game after all.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Ahem, let me explain. I AM TERRIFIED OF THIS GAME. No, really. I have played/watched/enjoyed scary games and movies since I was little, seriously I laugh when things get violent and bloody. This game? I can't even look at a GIF without throwing the Ipad and bursting into tears. So. This is my version of therapy, I write. Reviews/faves/follows=updates and I've always been pretty good about updating when well-recieved. Enjoy.**

It was just another job. It wouldn't be any different than any of the others. His only hope was he would be able to keep this one and then in turn, keep his son.

"Can I go with you to your job tonight, D-D-Daddy?"

Mike Schmidt looks up from packing his lunch-pail for his new job at Freddy's, a kiddie pizza joint where he was the new night-watchman, "I don't think so buddy," Mike smiled and ruffled the seven-year old's thick black hair, "I gotta go in long after you're supposed to be sleeping."

"But, D-D-Daddy, I'd feel safer if I could go with you . . . I d-d-don' wanna be by myself in the house at night."

Mike blinked slowly and bit his lip, his son, Elroy, stared up at him with gigantic blue eyes and he sighed, "Okay, but you can't bother Daddy while he's working okay? And you need to sleep a bit while we're there."

"Okay!"

Mike went about packing some extra snacks for Elroy then got him a blanket and pillow from his room, "Put your pj's on, kiddo, and not a word to your mother, got it? This is 'bad parenting' on so many levels, let's just be thankfully you don't have school in June, eh?"

"Yep yep!" Elroy ran around in his little Batman underwear before pulling on some plain black pj's, "I get to spend the night at Freddy's! You get the best job ever, D-D-Daddy! I heard kids at the park talkin' 'bout it!"

Mike smiled as his son stuttered through a long narrative about how awesome it would be to run around Freddy's at night and play with the 'big puppets' they have there.

* * *

><p>Mike pulled up into the parking lot around 11:30 PM, he scooped a dozy Elroy into his arms and carried him into the building after finagling the keys into the door, then made his way down to the security office. He settled Elroy with the pillow and blanket into one of the big swivel chairs then sat down himself and picked up the camera monitor, running through the different cameras before sighing and leaning back, fumbling about for his Ipod, it was going to be a long seven hours . . .<p>

He was just about to settle back with some good music when the phone rang. He sat up, glancing at Elroy and seeing the little guy sitting up and yawning, he went to answer it quickly only to see a 'Do Not Answer After Hours' note taped to the receiver. Mike blinked at that but shrugged and let the machine answer it:

"Hello? Oh, Hello! Uh, I wanted to record a message for you to help you get settled in on your first night. Um, I actually worked in that office before you. I'm finishing up my last week now as a matter of fact. So I know it can be a bit overwhelming, but I'm here to tell you: there's nothing to worry about. Uh, you'll do fine, so let's just focus on getting you through your first week, okay? Uh, let's see... First there's an introductory greeting from the company that I'm supposed to read, eh, it's kind of a legal thing. You know. Um. . . '_Welcome to Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, a magical place for kids and grown-ups alike, where fantasy and fun come to life._ _Fazbear Entertainment is not responsible for damage to property or person. Upon discovering that damage or death has occurred, a missing persons report will be filed within 90 days or as soon as property and premises have been thoroughly cleaned and bleached, and the carpets have been replaced-'_Blah, blah, blah."

Mike stopped really listening at that point as a deep sense of dread filled him as the connotation of this 'greeting' got more and more frightening and he found himself glancing in horrified understanding at the blast doors and when he looked at Elroy, something wasn't quite right. Either the poor kid was so tired he hadn't heard (or hopefully hadn't understood) the message or had heard but still didn't comprehend, that was the beauty of being a little kid, no fear whatsoever.

The message ended and Mike felt Elroy's eyes on him, he smiled and reached over, ruffling soft, thick hair, "Weird place, huh, pal?"

"Hmm, D-D-Daddy?" Elroy asked softly.

"Yeah?" Mike braced himself for a full-on terror-induced screaming fit.

"Where's the bathroom?" Elroy yawned again and stretched.

"Oh, down the hall right outside the door." Mike said, he knew that letting his kid wander out . . . alone was a very, very bad idea, but he didn't want to scare Elroy or cause a panic, so he tried to act calm and reassuring, "I'll watch you on the cameras, okay?"

"D-D-Daaaaddy! That's weird!" Elroy giggled and ran out the door.

Mike rapidly flicked on the cameras frantically until he saw Elroy go safely into the Men's room, he breathed out slowly then went about checking the other cameras, flicking through them in what started as paranoid fear but then dwindled into 'that guy was full of shit and trying to scare me out of his job' attitude. Mike was just about to turn the cameras off when he saw the 'stage camera' and froze . . . where the hell was the purple thing? Hadn't there been a purple rabbit on it before . . . ? Mike felt his blood pressure rising as he scanned through the cameras again only to almost stand up in disbelief. Bonnie the Bunny was standing in the middle of the dining area.

"E-Elroy?" Mike called, his heart thudding as he quickly turned the camera off, mindful of his limited battery life, "Elroy, can you hear me?"

There was no answer for a moment then he heard Elroy in the hall, "D-D-Daddy, I'm going to have a look around, okay?"

"No! Elroy, get back in here with Daddy!" Mike stood up, ready to race out and get his son when he suddenly noticed a silhouette just outside the left-hand door. His breathing became erratic and he slowly glanced out only to slam the blast door shut as he came face to face with Bonnie the motherfucking animatronic bunny!

"oh god . . . " Mike panted, swallowing thickly, "what do I do?"

He was terrified to an almost paralytic state but . . . Elroy . . . he had to do something . . . he had to-

He heard a squeal coming from down the hall and his heart tore at its moorings in his chest and he made a snap decision, he sprinted out of the office through the other door and ran down the hall, listening to what he thought must be Elroy, singing and clapping along to-

They were all there on the stage. Bonnie, Chica, and Freddy . . . singing. Singing one of those stupid songs and moving rigidly to play fake instruments. Mike stood there staring in horror, had he not just stopped that rabbit from getting into the office?

"D-D-Daddy, look! I found some new friends!" Elroy laughed and sang along with the animatronic creatures while Mike slowly moved forward to pull the boy into his arms, staring fixedly at that fucking bear as it stopped singing and seemed to smile while Mike backed out of the room,

"Come back soon!" Freddy's automated voice grated.

Elroy laughed and waved, "I will, bye Freddy!"

Mike was shaking so bad when they made it back to the office that he thought he'd up-chuck the Little Ceasar's he'd inhaled before coming over. He wasn't nuts. He wasn't crazy, he'd seen that rabbit, lurking outside the door! He saw it moving around on it's own! And for that matter . . .

"Elroy, you shouldn't plug in the puppets, okay? Daddy could get in trouble for that." Mike admonished gently, feeling a slow bit of reassurance in his own words, Elroy must have turned them on and that's why Bonnie had ended up in front of the door, not some weird supernatural nonsense.

Elroy blinked from hunkering down in his blanket, "I d-d-didn't, D-D-Daddy, honest, they were already on when I went up to them! I like them, they're neat!" He yawned hugely, "I like it here too, it's a nice place."

Mike stared at his son in disbelief and wanted to curl up in a ball and die, which he probably would considering he had the whole week to go and if he quit this job, he'd lose custody . . . he was so screwed.

**A/N: There you go. I actually enjoyed writing this . . . and they told me self-medicating was a bad thing! ^^**


	2. Chapter 2

**Okay, so here's the deal, I put this in the 'Horror' category for the game itself so this story isn't going to be blood, doom and gloom, yeh? You want that, play the game. Elroy is the key element in this story so I decided to push his POV into the mix. If it works well, let me know in the Reviews. Or just review for the heck of it, your choice! Thanks to all those who've given this story support!**

Mike sat at the kitchen table waiting for the clock to tell him that it was once more that time of night where he had to pack himself something to eat and go to . . . work. He'd mulled it over in his brain and came to the conclusion that there wasn't a perfectly rational, logical reason to all the things that had gone on and were going on at Freddy's. He wasn't going to start asking questions of the Management because he really didn't want to get fired for being nosey but at the same time . . . he had to know.

Before him on the table were the only two shreds of evidence he had that something wasn't right at Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria. One was an article pertaining to the Bite of '87 and the other was a short collection of missing children. They all had to be connected . . . somehow but there was just one thing, Elroy was the key to this.

"What'cha d-d-doin', D-D-Daddy?"

"Heh, speak of the devil." Mike smiled and turned to his son, "Hey, pal, remember Daddy's work?"

"Uh-huh! I had fun!" Elroy smiled brightly and hopped into the other chair as Mike was swiping the articles into a satchel.

"Wanna go again with Daddy tonight?" Mike asked, his heart thudded at the idea of putting his son in danger, again, but at the same time those . . . creatures hadn't hurt Elroy, just like they didn't hurt children during the day, there must be something!

"oh can I, D-D-Daddy?" Elroy bounced in his seat happily, hugging himself in his excitement.

"Sure, go get ready just like last time."

Mike watched his son run off to his room to get his pajamas on and then turned back to the staring at the clock. The articles spoke of tragedy and unsolved mysteries, of hurt and fear without comfort. He remembered what happened when Elroy found one of Mike's old horror flicks, really a rather cheesy film but to a child it was terrifying and it had taken nearly a month of checking in closets and under beds and sleeping with Elroy to get him to understand that everything was okay. According to the missing children articles, there were five unaccounted-for bodies and the speculation as to where they were was . . . disturbing, but still if that was the case and the urban legends of the animatronics was true, then Mike and Elroy really had their work cut out for them.

* * *

><p>Mike pulled up to Freddy's and sighed, once more jiggling the key into the lock and led the way to the security office, he stared around for a moment, waiting until Elroy got himself situated and was just about to go through his cameras and lights to check them when he heard the phone ring. He waited for it to pick up then listened to yet another message by whoever-he-is trying to give advice in the form of poorly disguised fear and paranoia. Mike rolled his eyes as the phone hung up then made sure Elroy was unaffected by the message, as he hoped, Elroy wasn't really paying attention so he didn't let it get to him too much.<p>

"D-D-Daddy? Can I got look around again?" Elroy got off his chair and stood next to Mike, pouting his lip for effect.

Mike swallowed, remembering what he'd discovered the previous day through his investigating and nodded, "Sure, bud, just don't make a mess or anything okay?"

"Okay!" Elroy smiled and scurried out the door, his little trainers making the only sound in the eerily quiet place.

Mike sat back and waited, his theory was so tenuous he was sweating and shaking, if he was wrong, he'd just kill himself or better yet, let them come get him and stuff him in a suit . . . if he was wrong, he wouldn't be able to live with himself anyway. If he was right, however, the puppets would believe that since Elroy is there and clearly a child, then they were on the 'day-cycle' and so had to entertain and sing and do their normal routine whereas if they saw Mike, they'd know something was up.

"I'm giving them _way _too much credit." Mike muttered, but part of him could feel that there was more than met the eye on this one.

He checked his cameras and sure enough, there was Elroy, he'd turned on a light in the dining area and was sitting on the stage, looking up at Bonnie for some reason . . .

* * *

><p>Elroy had wandered into the dining room because that was where the puppets were to begin with so it made sense, he wanted to check out the other areas but some doors were too heavy and the Pirate Cove said 'out of order' and he knew that that meant he shouldn't go in there especially if he didn't know when Daddy might catch him peeking.<p>

The small boy stood on tip-top and climbed onto the stage where the big purple bunny, Bonnie stood, he stared at it for a few seconds before sitting down. The kids at school sometimes have parties here at Freddy's, but Elroy's never been here before, Daddy said it was too expensive, which is a grown-up way for telling him that they wouldn't get to ever have his birthday there because Daddy's jobs are never that good. But Elroy was always okay with that, he understood that Daddy tried really hard and hey! He got to come here when no one else was allowed and he got to have Freddy and the others all to himself! All in all, he won out on the deal!

"I know you're sad." Elroy said softly, looking up at the puppet.

It didn't move but Elroy knew it heard him, just like he knew when he talked to his teddy that it could really hear him even if it didn't look at him or hug him back. It was something you just _knew_.

"I know a lot of kids come here and they always say how . . . '_lame'_ it is here. How stupid you all are . . . I'm sorry, that's not helping, is it?" Elroy scooted closer, but again the bunny didn't move, "But I know you're sad on the inside, aren't you? You all are. It's okay though, we can all play together without the other kids."

There was a soft creaking sound, and Bonnie blinked, it's eyes shifted so that it was looking sideways at Elroy and then there was a soft voice that came from the rabbit. It was kind of scratchy and stiff, like how it sounded when you talked into a tin-can walkie-talkie,

"you . . . You can hear us?"

Elroy smiled as the bunny's eyes glowed, "I'm Elroy, what's your name?"

* * *

><p>Mike knew he couldn't keep checking the camera but he couldn't stop himself from glancing at the dining hall every once in a while as Elroy seemed to be having a conversation with himself. Or at least, Elroy thought he was talking to a large stuffed rabbit, but the rabbit hadn't moved since the child had entered the area and turned on a light. In fact, none of them had moved at all.<p>

Being a grown-up Mike thought he wasn't supposed to get scared. Well, at least not in the sense where he checked his closet for boogeymen, but more a fear for his child's life, that was normal, that was everyday! But this? He wasn't afraid for Elroy, oddly enough, it was more his fear of a supposed inanimate object actually talking and moving on its own accord that had his palms clammy and his heart beating a firm staccato into his ribcage.

He knew that Elroy was talking even if he couldn't really hear him but he would stop every now and then as if waiting for a reply . . .

* * *

><p>"Who are you?" Elroy asked just as softly.<p>

" . . . we don't remember." Bonnie said and there was a kind of hiccup.

"D-d-don't cry!" Elroy stood up quickly, moving closer and touching the bunny's arm.

He'd never been able to let people cry alone, he was a . . . sen-si-tive soul. At least that's what Gran called him. So whenever one of his pals cried, he did too without thinking. And now he felt his eyes sting in that funny way they did right before tears would form.

"We . . . We don't remember . . . so long ago."

Elroy blinked in confusion then furrowed his brow, "Well, you must have been something. Weren't you?"

There was another hiccup then something happened that made Elroy blink twice, there was a little boy standing in front of him, no older than him with a little bowtie, button-up white shirt and black slacks, his large, glow-y white eyes blinked at Elroy through his fingers as he hiccupped and cried.

* * *

><p>Mike blinked and tapped his camera screen, there was massive static and he could hardly see what was going on. He squinted and then shook his head, nope, nothing, he stood up and moved to the door a bit,<p>

"Elroy? Elroy, c'mon back here, pal."

* * *

><p>Elroy turned his head when he heard Daddy calling him and huffed, "In a minute, D-D-Daddy!" He looked back at the little boy who wasn't really that little but maybe a little bit taller than Elroy and maybe a little broader and perhaps a little bit older, "Are you Bonnie?"<p>

The boy shook his head and looked at the rabbit, "I don't remember! I don't know! I just . . . I remember hugging Freddy . . . I remember hugging him, the big bear and following him into a room and then-" The boy sobbed again and shook his head violently, he looked up, his eyes blazing and his lips pulled back in a snarl, "I remember nothing more."

Elroy took a step back, nearly bumping into Freddy, that was a little scary, the way the Bonnie-bunny-boy was looking at him now, and the way he was moving closer a bit and Elroy felt a little tight in his chest and he bit his lip because this wasn't fun anymore, this wasn't happy singing or hugging puppets or like talking to his teddy at all. And he wasn't sure if he liked it at all.

Elroy took another step back then stopped, "You-" he swallowed and clenched his hands into fists, "You can't be mean to me otherwise that-that means you're a bully! And-And I d-d-don't like bullies!"

Bonnie blinked and stepped back half a step, "I'm . . . I'm NOT a bully!"

"Yes you are!" Elroy said more firmly, the tightness in his chest slackened a little when he saw that this was working, "You're scaring me and that's what bullies d-d-do!"

"NO I'M NOT!" Bonnie shrieked and a lightbulb flickered and died overhead.

Both boys yelped in surprise and were perfectly still, Elroy was the first to collect himself and stop cowering, "If . . . If you're not a bully, then stop scaring me. It . . . It isn't nice."

* * *

><p>Mike started in shock when he heard another child's voice yelling at Elroy and he quickly sat down, Elroy . . . Elroy was doing it. He was doing exactly what Mike thought would happen, well, rather what he theorized and crossed his fingers over but still! Something was happening and after a few moments he checked the cameras again and he saw a static-y glimpse of Elroy and could hear him laughing again so it was okay . . . for now.<p>

* * *

><p>Bonnie and Elroy finished playing tag in the dining area and were sitting on the stage again, Elroy yawned loudly and stretched, "So . . . you're Bonnie then?"<p>

"I . . . I guess so?" Bonnie shrugged, "I told you I'm still . . . a bit fuzzy on everything . . . I just, I feel so," He scrunched his face up a bit like Daddy does when he's thinking really hard, " . . . Angry and I _hurt_ but I don't know why."

"Sometimes," Elroy said softly, looking at the bowtied-boy, "When I'm angry, D-D-Daddy tells me to hold real still and think about whether I'm angry or just frustrated. Cuz, when I'm frustrated it means he can help and when I'm just mad, I better run a lap cuz no one wants to be around cranky kids."

They both giggled a bit then Elroy yawned again, leaning back on the puppet bunny's leg. Bonnie looked up at the rabbit sadly and shook his head,

" . . . I think I'm frustrated then . . . like . . . like I'm stuck in glue and can't get free."

"Like a fly on flypaper?" Elroy asked, remembering when his daddy bought a roll of the sticky stuff, but it made him so sad to see the little flies wiggling their arms and buzzing desperately to get free that he cried and made Daddy get rid of the paper. He didn't like thinking that his new friends felt like those flies, wiggling and struggling and crying but not ever able to get away.

" . . . Yeah." Bonnie snuffled and wiped his nose on his arm.

"We'll figure it out." Elroy assured, putting his hand on Bonnie's shoulder, "It'll be okay, me and D-D-Daddy are really good at these puzzles. One time I helped him finish the whole crossword!"

Bonnie smiled sadly and nodded, "That . . . that makes me feel lots better."

Elroy smiled and hopped off the stage, "D-D-Don't worry, I pinky swear!"

* * *

><p>Mike turned his head in time for Elroy to come back in, bleary eyed and yawning, he pulled the boy into his arms and hugged him tightly,<p>

"H-Hey buddy, what'd you get up to?" He asked softly, breathing in relief that Elroy was back safe and sound.

"Bonnie says him and the others are scared . . . and frustrated . . . and that they d-d-don't remember who they are." Elroy curled up in Mike's arms, "D-D-Daddy?"

"Yeah?"

"Are we going to help him and the others?"

"Gonna try." Mike murmured.

"And D-D-Daddy?"

"Yeah?"

"Bonnie says hello."

**A/N: so here's the deal, I'm working my plotbunny around the theory that there were children stuffed into the suits by an Employee during Freddy's decline (one rumor is that the employee wore the Golden Freddy costume and that's why the empty suit appears to Mike in the security room) and when Bonnie says he followed Freddy, he's talking about that, not the Freddy on stage with him now. Also if you haven't figured it out, I'm also playing into a psychological theory that children have a sixth sense and are marginally psychic (this theory, though I cannot remember the name) discusses how children can see and hear things adults can't, hence the ghosts. And for my other bit, the Puppet Bonny doesn't move its mouth when speaking, the child's voice sort of comes from it hence also why Mike didn't register anything happening on the cameras. OKAY! Long A/N, sorry about that!**


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